Liar
by Alyson Grant
Summary: You're with her but you really want to be with me. You know it. I know it. Yet you lie to yourself. Deny, deny, deny...LIE.


_**Liar**_

By

**Alyson Grant**

"I just want you to tell me that I mean something to you. Why can't you do that? What is _wrong_ with you?"

"What's wrong with me? How about what's _wrong_ with you?" he asked angrily.

Jude's eyes flashed in irritation.

"Don't you think it's kind of bitchy of you to try to break us up? I mean, she's _your _sister!"

"I'm not trying to break you guys up but believe me it's only a matter of time before you guys unceremoniously crash and combust anyway," she said with her arms crossed as she looked at him defiantly.

His eyes darkened. "It's only a matter of time? It's only a matter of time? Are you-"

He broke off mid-sentence, raised one hand like he was warding off evil and tightly squeezed it shut.

"_What_ kind of a thing is that to say huh?" He looked at her fiercely. "Andrews breaks up with you so you plan on being the original Rain, Doom, and Gloom girl to everyone you come across? What's _with_ you? You can't find happiness so no one else can either?"

She flinched.

"Low blow Quincy," she said in a low tone.

"What, do you want me to apologize?" He snapped.

"Would you mean it?" She asked with an equally cutting attitude.

"No," he said shortly.

"Then no," she said as she kept her gaze firmly on him. "Don't bother."

"What do you want from me Jude?" He asked in a low tone that was both strangled and harsh.

"I already told you."

"You're _sixteen_."

"Thanks for the reminder _Dad_. I _never_ would have known otherwise. Thanks so _much_ for telling me Tommy," she said sarcastically.

Her foot tapped impatiently on the hardwood floor as she rolled her eyes at the obvious truth. "Give me some _credit_ here."

"Then you know we can't do this. I can't-"

"You weren't thinking about _any_ of that the night you kissed me," she stated in a hard tone.

"Jude-"

"You don't love her so why are you lying to yourself?" she burst out. "And I bet she doesn't even really love you!"

She moved away from him, taking long strides across the room working out her pent up frustration.

"You used to be a poster on her wall Quincy," she spat out as she turned back to face him. Her voice rose as she continued vehemently, "For God's sakes she owns an autographed Boyz Attack T-shirt! How on _Earth _can you love someone you used to idolize? It doesn't even seem possible."

"It doesn't _matter _what you think Jude. It doesn't matter what you do or do not think is possible. This isn't even about you!"

"Thanks, thanks a whole lot."

"What are you doing Jude? I mean really."

"I..." She faltered as she searched for the words. "Just…_want_ you to admit the truth. I just… _want_ you to stop…_being_ with someone who doesn't even know the real you and wouldn't understand it all even if she tried."

"And you do?"

Her eyebrow arched in challenge. "Are you saying that I _don't_?"

"So what do you want me to do Jude?" he asked as he ignored the question. "Dump your sister and start dating you? Huh? Is that it?" His eyes glinted with growing frustration as he looked at her.

"Is that what you want?" he asked harshly. "Tell me, is that what you _really_, _really_, want?"

"It doesn't matter what I really want does it? I'm never going to get it," she said softly immediately hating herself for her honesty and pathetic words.

He didn't say anything.

She closed her eyes and breathed.

When she opened them he was still looking at her.

The room was filled with silence.

Until she broke it.

"Tell me you don't love me," she said evenly as she looked at him straight in the eyes.

She walked back slowly as she said those words, never breaking eye contact.

"Tell me you don't love me," she repeated when she stood directly in front of him. "And maybe I'll leave you alone in your lies."

Tommy stared at her with a pained expression.

Jude looked at him triumphantly. "You can't do it can you? Because you_ know_ you won't mean it. You _know_-"

Tommy cut her off with a soul stirring kiss. He acted without thinking.

His body made the move before his brain intervened.

That's how it seemed.

He felt the softness of her lips as they molded against his and felt the soft contours of her body as he drew her closer. In those moments he felt alive and the air seemed to crackle with the undercurrents of this powerful electricity.

Then he seemed to realize what he was doing and he pulled back, and tried to reign in his emotions.

Just like last time…

Her eyes fluttered open. She looked at him. She didn't say anything and in that moment neither could he.

Her expression wasn't **triumphant** at proving him wrong.

She wasn't **crowing** over her victory.

She didn't look **upset** or **embarrassed** like she had the first time their lips touched with unforgettable results when she was fifteen and she didn't look **shocked** or **uncertain** like the second time when she was a newly minted sixteen.

She just looked at him.

Her expression seemed naked.

Like everything he ever wanted to know about who she was and how she felt and who she really was on the inside was there, lying broken like painful shards of glass shoved harshly into the palm of his hand for him to see.

When she looked at him he almost drowned in the fathomless pools of her stormy sea blue eyes. A few seconds ago the two icy orbs looked like an angry churning river but now...

Inwardly he sighed. Maybe he didn't know her as well as he thought.

Maybe no one really never really knew another person as well as they thought.

Maybe you never really knew what was going on beneath the surface. You could guess.

But you might be wrong.

He dropped his guilty hands from the slight curve of her waist to his sides and took a step back.

She looked vaguely hurt at the sudden distance, at the silent way he seemed to be smoothing over the moment, perhaps making it dirty, something that could, should and would be forgotten.

As they broke apart he whispered, "I don't love you."

And walked away.

When he said it he could barely look at her. He didn't.

He avoided the clarity of her gaze and tried to put those words between them.

Jude watched him leave but made no motions of stopping him.

She just whispered, "You're a liar."


End file.
